Antetand
Brief History Antetand is one of the oldest countries on the planet dating back nearly a thousand years. While the borders have constantly shifted the core regions of the state have remained constant. Antetand has long held to the claim they are the ‘official’ nation for the Tand peoples, despite frequently controlling less than 30% of all the Tand lands throughout history. It is only since the end of the Great War that Antetand has controlled all of the Tand lands. Medieval Era Antetand has a long proud history of knights, honor bound lords, epic wars, and the intense rivalries of the medieval Dukes of Antetand. Texts from the days of the earliest written history show the landscapes of the modern regions of Greater Ethon, Usthonn, Hessischen, Konikstoin and Marrenbusch were dominated by magnificent castles, fortresses, and palaces. Nearly four dozen dukes and their combined hundreds of counts fought near endless conflicts with each other for dominion over the vast fields and forests of central Antetand. While occasionally a duke would rise to a position where he or she could call themselves king it rarely lasted more than a decade and never more than two generations. Many of the dukes united under King Arcturus the Great during the fifty years war with the Kingdom of Yolsa or Queen-Conqueror Maria during the invasions of the Merchant Republics or King Gerald the Mighty during the Arrimn Crisis; however, in all cases, as soon as the conflict concluded, or the liege died, the dukes returned to their squabbling nature. It wasn’t until 1578 under King Charles Wolfen that Antetand was finally united under a single banner and became known as the Kingdom of Antetand. Wolfen’s dynasty ruled for nearly a hundred and fifty years during which time they completed the conquest of the central midlands of modern Antetand, annexed the Republic of Marrenhaven, and established took the Seaholm valley from the Kingdom of Toaona. Crisis of the 18th Century In 1714 a plague ripped through the continent killing the entirety of the Wolfen Dynasty plunging the kingdom into a succession crisis that saw a distant relative, Edward of Hemport of the Kingdom of Lyradur ascend to the throne, establishing the Highport Dynasty. At the same time Lyradur and Toaona were going through similar succession crises that threw their noble houses into disarray. Edward Highport had a well-established claim to the throne of Lyradur and his future wife, Carloina of Tethi, had a strong claim to the Kingdom of Toaona. While Lyradur emerged from the crisis period as a Democratic Kritarchy with no noble ruling class, Antetand -even after the end of the monarchy- has long asserted thanks to this historic claim, that it should rightfully rule over Lyradur. The Highport Dynasty ruled Antetand until 1820 when congress pressed for more power and was able to force the King to sign the Ethon Accords which turned the state into a Constitutional-Monarchy. This didn’t last very long however as the death of King William II Highport saw his three year old son become King and without hesitation congress dissolved the monarchy and established the office of the High Premier in its stead turning Antetand into a Constitutional Republic. The latter half of the century however saw Antetand lose war after war to its historic rivals culminating in the inevitability of the Great War. Modern Times Through the Great War Antetand was able to reclaim all of it’s lost territory, humiliate its enemies, and for the first time in a century take new land. With it’s southern borders secured Antetand looked north; conquering the disorganized Yuktal regions and annexing the Yolsa Republic. Antetand then swiftly turned south again, seizing control over the low countries and integrating them into the state. While Kieli proved to be an admirable adversary they two were eventually defeated and turned into a puppet state. The last decade has seen a massive upheaval in Antetand with the National Movementist Party winning the 1926 elections in landslide. Shortly thereafter the courts deemed the elections invalid leading to massive public outcry that led to a full on revolt in early 1927 known as the Student Revolution where University students stormed the corrupt courts and hung most of the judicial. Trial by legislature was introduced as the courts were suspended by popular demand. Rebellion sprung up in Yolsa and in the conquered Lyradurian territory and mounting domestic crises pushed High Premier Reginhold and the National Movementist Party to suspend the legislature while order was reestablished. However, a failed coup attempt in 1934 by a sizeable portion of the congress saw the congress suspended indefinitely until the situation within the nation had stabilized.